Patronus
by keetongirl
Summary: Patronuses reflect your personality. They show what's deep down inside of you. They show what you're made of. So when Lily Evans found out that her Patronus was the female version of James Potter's Patronus, she was pleasantly surprised. One-shot.


Lily Evans walked with her friend Dorcas Meadowes to her Defense Against the Dark Arts class. "Where's Marlene?" Lily asked. "I thought she was coming with us."

"Where do you think she is?" Dorcas replied.

"With the Marauders," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"James is her cousin," Dorcas said.

"I will always blame James for Marlene," Lily huffed.

"She's like a female version of him."

"I know, it's just creepy."

"What's creepy?" Marlene asked, walking up beside them.

"How you and James are so much alike," Lily said.

"We are not alike!" a loud voice shouted.

James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, a.k.a. the Marauders, were suddenly beside the three girls.

"Yeah, I mean have you looked at us recently," Marlene said. "Blonde hair, blue eyes. Black hair, brown eyes."

"They're more hazel," said Dorcas, nitpicking.

"Yeah, they are," Lily agreed.

"What does that have to do with anything?!" proclaimed James.

"You're right, they are hazel," Marlene said. "Sorry about that."

"Hazel, brown, same thing," Sirius said. "Why does it matter so much?"

"They are not the same thing," Lily said, slightly riled. "There's a big difference."

"Oh, yeah, how so?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ok, brown is more like. . .Dorcas' hair," Lily said. "Hazel is the colour of James' eyes."

"How did we get sucked into this conversation?" James asked.

"I have no idea," responded Sirius, dryly.

"Here we are," Remus said, pulling door to the classroom open.

Sirius was about to walk in when Marlene pushed him out of the way. "Ladies first," she said smugly. He glared at her, but didn't say anything even when she stuck her tongue out before walking inside. Lily rolled her eyes and followed her. Dorcas just smiled. As Professor Turner walked into the room, everyone sat down.

Lily was just as surprised as everyone else when she walked in at the beginning of the year to find their new professor was a woman, it was a pleasant surprise. Some of the boys had joked about it, but once they saw that Professor Turner would not take any of their crap they quickly cut it out. That is, everyone except the Marauders who apparently thought it was hilarious to get in trouble with her.

Lily and all of the other girls looked up to her. She had taken a leave of absence from the Auror program to take care of her mother who was very sick, only taking the job because it was easy to be with her whilst also making money. Professor Turner never told anyone what was wrong with her mother. Whenever anyone asked about her she would just say that she was fine and was being well looked after.

"Hello, Lizzy," Sirius said, sitting down.

"Hello, Mr. Black," she said, not looking up from her papers.

"Hello, Professor," Lily said, pleasantly.

"Hello, Lily," she said, smiling at the younger girl.

"Is your mother doing better?" she asked.

"A little, thank you," she replied, kindly.

Lily took her seat next to Marlene. "Kiss up," Sirius mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Lily said, spinning around. "Her mother is sick."

"I know," Sirius said, indifferent.

"You are so rude," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"Alright everyone, listen up," Professor Turner said when everyone had showed up. "Today I want the girls on one the right and the boys on the left. What we are about to attempt will take all of your concentration and I don't want any distractions."

When the girls had moved to the right side of the room and the boys to left, she spoke again. "Alright, today we will be attempting the Patronus Charm. It is very complicated so I don't expect you to get it right away. However, I have some bright students so I think one or two of you will be able to produce a corporeal Patronus in this lesson. Although I expect all of you to at least be able to make a non-corporeal Patronus by the end of class. You must think of the happiest thing that's ever happened to you. Let that memory fill you up, then you will move your wands in a circular motion like this."

She demonstrated the movement. "Say loudly and clearly 'Expecto Patronum'. A silvery mist should come out of your wand if you perform it correctly. Alright class, begin."

There was a scraping of chairs as everyone stood up. Lily closed her eyes and tried to think of her happiest memory. She thought of the time she and Petunia had been friends. "Expecto Patronum!" she shouted. Her wand produced a silvery mist that started to take the form of an animal, but then disappeared.

She smiled. _Almost_, she thought. _What's happier than that?_

She then thought about the time she got her Hogwarts letter. "Expecto Patronum!" she yelled, more forcefully this time. A non-corporeal Patronus appeared, but disappeared quickly as Lily remembered everything that came from it. Petunia hating her, telling her she was freak, not speaking to her.

She sighed. _What's my happiest thought?_ Lily asked herself. Suddenly the day she got on the train for her seventh year popped into her mind. She remembered finding out James was Head Boy and snapping at him at least ten times for doing nothing at all. She remembered when she had been crying in an empty classroom because she was afraid of losing her friends like she'd lost Severus; she recalled how he had comforted her. This evoked further memories of how he'd offered to help her with Transfiguration, when he saw she was struggling. She remembered wondering why he hadn't asked her out at all this year and thought that maybe he had changed. She remembered sitting at breakfast with the Marauders, Marlene, and Dorcas and actually enjoying it. She remembered how he made her laugh when she was under so much stress that she felt like she would crumble. She remembered when they were in the library studying and his hand had accidentally brushed against hers, and the tingling feeling she had gotten from that mire touch.

Lily decided her happy thought was one day when she was in the library with Sirius. He had been sitting across from her, teasing Marlene; Remus had been explaining something to Dorcas and James was sittting next to her.

A grin slid across her face and she shouted again. "Expecto Patronum!"

This time a resplendent silver light shot out of her wand. Long elegant legs, a long nose, a stout body, and small tail appeared, seeming to detach from her wand; a doe. In that moment, Lily forgot everything as the doe turned to her. She smiled widely. She had done it!

The doe started to sprint across the room and around the walls. Lily watched in amazement as it seemed to move on air. After a few moments, the doe disappeared as Lily became distracted with another train of thought. She noticed now that the whole room was staring at her in awe.

"Well done, Ms. Evans," Professor Turner said, gleaming. "I thought you might be one of the lucky ones. Alright back to your work; stop staring."

"Nice job, Evans," James called from across the room.

"Thanks!" Lily called back.

Marlene ran over to Lily. "That was amazing, Lily! It was beautiful."

"Thanks," Lily said smiling.

"Don't go getting any ideas, Evans," a nasty voice hissed.

Lily turned around to see Emmeline Vance standing behind her with her arms crossed.

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked, her good mood fading. Emmeline had always had it out for her for reasons unknown to Lily. Marlene said it was because she was smarter, prettier, and had all of James' attention.

"Trying to catch James' eye," Emmeline replied. "He's over you and always will be. I don't care what you do, he likes me now."

"Get lost, Vance," Marlene snapped. "Just because you can't doesn't mean you have to put everyone down. Besides, we all know Sirius dumped you after one shag. He said it was the worst he'd ever had."

Emmeline huffed and stormed away.

"That was mean, Marlene," Lily said.

"Why do you think I said it?" she declared.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's see you have a go."

"I can't seem to find a happy-enough memory," she sighed.

"How about that one time you told me Sirius kissed you under the Potter's dock," Lily said slyly. "The one where you were down by the lake and you got all giddy about it."

"It won't work," Marlene mumbled while smiling.

"Go on, give it a try," Lily said.

"Fine," Marlene said. "Excepto Patronum!"

A silver tiger came out of Marlene's wand, and her face light up like a Christmas tree. The tiger walked over to Peter and proceeded to roar into his face. He jolted and scrambled backwards; Marlene just laughed. The tiger started to walk up to the ceiling and around the room as if it were a guard. Then suddenly, a silver dolphin joined it, moving quicker around the room than the tiger.

"I did it!" Dorcas shouted.

"Great job, Dorcas!" Lily said, beaming.

"Very good, Ms McKinnon and Ms Meadowes," Professor Turner said.

After a moment, the Patronuses faded.

"Come on, Lily, let's see yours again," Marlene said.

"Yeah, Lily it was beautiful!" said Dorcas.

"I don't know," she said, uncertain.

"Come on, please!" they both said at the same time.

"Oh, fine," Lily said. "Expecto Patronum!"

The silver doe appeared again. This time there was a stag marching towards it. Lily gasped and Marlene and Dorcas exchanged looks. The doe took off and the stag followed it, all the while, Lily watching. Finally they stopped the doe on one side of the room with the stag on the other, and walked towards each other not stopping until their noses were touching. The doe sniffed the stag then rubbed her long face in his neck. The doe turned and laid down, but the stag pawed the ground then looked around as if expecting an intruder to take the doe away from him.

Suddenly there was a crashing sound and the doe and the stag disappeared. Lily turned and saw Peter had tripped over a bucket. There was an eerie silence. No one dared speak after that.

After a moment, Professor Turner said, "Very good, Mr. Potter."

Lily's head snapped over to look at James. He just shrugged.

The rest of the class passed smoothly. Sirius produced his Patronus, which turned out to be a dog; it ran around the room knocking people over which had Sirius in fits of laughter. Remus had produced one for a few seconds, but Lily hadn't seen what it was. She walked out of the classroom quickly, not wanting to hear Marlene and Dorcas any longer. Unfortunately, they were rather fast.

"Lily, that was. . .something," Marlene said.

"Something? It was amazing!" Dorcas said, loudly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lily said, pretending she hadn't noticed what had happened in class.

Marlene tsked. "Don't play dumb."

"You know what happened," Dorcas stated. "Stop pretending you don't."

"It means nothing," Lily said. "I do not like James Potter."

Dorcas and Marlene exchanged a look. "We didn't say you liked James," Marlene said.

Lily's eyes widened.

"No! Get outta here!" Marlene shouted. "After all this time?!"

"Keep your voice down!" Lily hissed covering her mouth.

"You really like him don't you?" Dorcas asked.

Lily sighed. "Yeah."

"Then tell him," Marlene encouraged her.

"I can't," Lily said.

"Why not?" Dorcas asked gently.

"Because he spent six years chasing after me and I always turned him down," Lily explained. "I can't just waltz up to him and say 'Hey, I like you now. Do you want to go out on a date?' He's moved on."

"Oh, Lils, James will always have a thing for you," Marlene said.

"I just. . .I'm not the 'asking out' kind of person," Lily said, downcast.

"You can do it," Dorcas said, smiling. "I know you can."

"I'll try," Lily replied.

She turned around and saw James walking towards them. She swallowed and waited for him to reach her. "Hello, girls," Sirius said. "Where to next?"

"Transfiguration," Marlene said. "Come on, you can walk me."

She grabbed his arm and pulled him away before he could protest. "Come on, Remus, Peter," Dorcas said. She grabbed them by the elbow and dragged them away too.

"Well, that was. . ."

"Yeah," James said.

"So your Patronus is a stag," she said, attempting conversation.

"Yours is a doe," he replied.

"Weird right?" she said.

"Maybe," he said. "Lils-"

"Yes," she said before blushing. "I'm sorry, that was rude. What were you going to say?"

"I was going to ask you out on a date," James said. "I had this whole speech planned out and everything and you just went and ruined it."

"I'm sorry," Lily said, flustered. "You can still say if you want."

"Nah, I think I'll just kiss you," James said, brazenly.

Before Lily could react James had wrapped his arms around her and kissed her full on the mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laced her fingers though his hair. James smiled pulling away.

"Why do you think it was a doe?" he asked resting his head against hers.

"I don't know," Lily said. "Patronuses reflect each person's personality."

"I guess you're more like me than you thought," he said with a smug grin.


End file.
